Trial and Error
by fool-kitty
Summary: The answers are never easily reached.


_Summary: The answers are never easily reached._

_A/N: Spoilers to the max for the Journey and some parts of the Answer._

And then there is a key.

* * *

"No, that enemy is strong against fire!"

It's too late, and the fire actually _hurts_ her. Her skin is merely metal and nuts and bolts, but god, that actually hurt. Mitsuru is down, Artemisia flickering out of existence and Akihiko unleashes another strong surge of electricity down upon the monsters. They keep coming. Metis is swinging her mallet left and right, holding them off while she gets back on her feet. She can hear the machinery whirring inside her joints, struggling to get back up. She's trying, she almost feels a chance coming-

And then the recording stops.

* * *

"She's awake."

"Finally!"

She registers the voices into her memory bank, files them appropriately as Fuuka and Junpei. Her eyes flutter open and she sees the dorm and its habitants standing around her with concern. What happened? Where is she?

"You were knocked out for quite some time." Mitsuru sits next to her, concern hidden behind the normal icy edge of her words. "A day and a half."

Her body feels heavier and when she looks down, she sees the armor lightly placed on her body. She looks to the red-headed woman.

"We thought it would be necessary due to…unforeseen circumstances."

She mentally recalls the memory banks, but she can only come up with crippling pain and burns and _oh god this wasn't the right path we're going to die save us please_-

"Aigis, are you okay?"

She stiffly nods, but her mind is frozen, replaying that split second of watching him being stabbed by Nyx.

* * *

_"Starting here, I will assist you. You will not remember, but I will guide you towards what is right."_

_ Her memory bank is muddled with too much information that it can't keep up with what is going on._

_ "Now please…take the first step."_

* * *

She climbs down the staircase, unsure of what awaits her. Metis bounces right beside her and it is hard not to react when she speaks. She still cannot process that another of her siblings is alive. She was gone that night chasing after Ryoji _no no it is death, a shadow, not human don't give him a human name, _ and she never got to see the demise of her sisters.

"There is something beyond this door." She points to a rather plain door beyond her. "I do not understand, sister. Why is this here?"

Fuuka scans what lies beyond. "I can't find anything conclusive behind that door. I do know that it isn't a normal exit, so keep your guard up."

She tells the team to take a break since they have not gone back to the entrance. Akihiko sits on a staircase and Yukari follows suit. Her eyes still contain the venomous anger and Aigis finds it difficult to give her orders.

"Enemy detected- oh no, run!"

The command comes much too late and now they are being surrounded by a massive black mass. Multiple shadows have congregated onto their location and no, no this can't be happening. Why is she the leader?

"Perso-"

The recording stops here.

* * *

_ "Who are you?"_

_ "It does not matter what I am. What matters is what must happen."_

_ "But-"_

_ "Now please, take the next step."_

* * *

"She's awake."

"Good."

She opens her eyes and the filters have not adjusted yet, for she is blinded by a set of white lights. She closes her eyes again and waits for her start up procedure to take place.

"Are you okay?" Ken, her memory bank chips in. "She looks hurt."

"Arf!" Koromaru asks nicely.

When she is ready and opens her eyes, she sees the boy and dog watching her curiously. She looks around and sees the rest of her friends surrounding the dining table, or at least, what's left of it.

"We should just kill her! She tried to kill everybody else here!" Yukari yells at her senpai, who are each holding a gun in their hands.

"Calm down, Yukari-"

"No! Let me go, Junpei!" The boy only holds on tighter, preventing her from attacking. "She tried to kill everyone and you're just going to protect her!?"

"We need to find out the reason why." Ever the voice of reason, Akihiko speaks up. "We don't just kill people. You of all people should know."

The room falls silent.

When she can stand, the machinery in her knees whirs. Her body still seems heavy, but she doesn't understand why this is necessary. "What is happening?"

And the question answers itself, for a huge crack in the ground tells her. No, multiple golden cracks in the ground spread out from the center. She looks around and sees a girl tied up in a chair. She seems to be incapacitated and unable to move. Her head leans forward in defeat and submission.

Aigis notes how frail and thin the girl looks and she finds it difficult to comprehend that she was going to kill them all.

But somewhere deep inside her, Aigis knows that the girl would not have done it. This, she knows for sure.

* * *

When all is said and done, they have split up to do their jobs. SEES has been reinstated for today (and many days to come). Since she has been touched with the power of whatever he had, she was deemed the leader of the crew.

"But…I do not know how to be a leader." She comments on her sudden position. "I do not think it is wise to-"

"Yeah, but since you inherited his power, you're the most versatile persona user we got." Akihiko straps on his gloves. "That makes you the most durable and capable as well as acting as backup when any one of us falls."

"Yeah, what he said." Ken picks up his hefty spear and throws it over his shoulder. "Besides, you're the only one who can control Metis-san."

Blue eyes drift over to the other member of their party. Her red swallow parts extend out like a dress and Aigis questions the purpose of such a gaudy design. She does not remember ever seeing any one of her sisters with such a design.

_But it's not like I was there for all of them,_ she thinks in the back of her mind.

"Please," Fuuka calmly speaks, "be careful. We don't know what's down here."

Aigis spins her wrist and readies her pistol fingers.

* * *

She watches her friends relive moments of their lives. Each one has lived a colorful life, ones spiced with trauma and tragedies and horrors and a bit of happiness inside as well. But so much tragedy. Too much to bear.

It is after the sixth door and she shuffles around the personas in her mind, a ramble of chaos and disorder. She wonders where Pallas Athena has disappeared to, but in the mess of personas, she begins to feel data rumble apart-

"Aigis," Ken tugs at her arm, "I wonder if Minato-kun sees us now. What he'd say about us."

"Why do you ask?" Aigis lets her eyes fall on the young boy, her mind working overtime to disassemble the chaos that her mind is currently going through. "I do not have access to Minato."

"Well, no, I know you don't." Ken looks down, ashamed at his feelings. "I'm just…it's really hard to talk about him to anyone anymore. Everyone looks so sad."

Aigis stands there for a few minutes, lets herself fall into a memory with him at the beach when she surprised him and hugged him and felt him underneath her fingers-

The recording stops here.

* * *

_The man stands in front of her and he wears a mask shaped like a butterfly and it reminds her of…of…who?_

_ "That is not of import." The man says aloud. "What matters are the answers you will find."_

_ "But…why?" Aigis wants to ask every question on her mind, but she already feels herself fading away from this world._

_ "Take the next step."_

* * *

"Suzaku…I swear, you have access to all the personas that he had." Junpei has the barest hint of sadness mingled with his awe.

Aigis withdraws the mystical bird back into her mind, feeling its wings take residence and quietly sitting there. At least this persona is more respectful of her peace of mind.

"Yo, Aigis! We found another staircase." Junpei points at the opening ahead of her.

When she looks at the boy, she doesn't see the pain in his life either. All she sees is a lost man who desperately wants to get to the truth and find his best friend at the end of this long and dreary tunnel.

"I understand." Aigis ignores the pang she feels and walks to where the rest of the group is. She smiles before going further down. And she wonders how much she can keep up the façade of being their leader or when did she get used to the feeling of being in lead.

Ebbs of a memory licks at her mind, but she can't recall them.

* * *

"Akihiko, watch out!"

And she summons Odin, saves him with the strongest thunder move she has, and she finds it a bit ironic how the boxer flinches from the shock. But she doesn't have time to think much more about it because more are coming-

"Aigis!" And he throws himself in the path of a bufudyne. All the breath and life in him quickly fades from him and he collapses. Aigis summons Kikuri-Hime, tries to use samerecarm-

The recording stops here.

* * *

_"Is it not what you have sought after since this journey began?" Her eyes are unfocused and she finds it odd that she feels weightless even with full armor on. "You wanted to find the answer."_

_ "No," her voice is reduced to a quiet garbled noise, "I just wanted to see him again…that's all."_

_ But the man chuckles lightly, its sound reverberating off some unknown wall. "Yes, but that comes hand in hand with what needs to happen. _

_ Before she can reply, the man shushes her. _

_ "Now please. Take the next step."_

* * *

She notices another shadow, shouts another command, and her body is twice as nimble. Akihiko fires off another bolt of electricity and Koromaru begins laying out an intricate dark spell. There is chaos and she doesn't know what to do next.

Her body moves before her mind catches up and she summons a powerful being-

The dark meteors that strike the ground shakes the whole floor and the team has to hide and shield themselves with their personas. The damage is colossal and she hopes that it eliminated the target.

When all is said and done, there lies no enemy.

"W-whoa…that was…"

"Arf!" _Wasn't that…one of the personas he used?_

Sure enough, she turns around and watches the serpentine being fade back into the recesses of her mind. She recounts the number of personas in her head and wonders how he dealt with the clashing personalities of gods and demons and faeries and monsters-

"Hey," Yukari walks up to Aigis without her registering the action, "Are you okay?"

There's a bite to her words and she wants to say _no I am not fine I wish you could stop being angry at me when I have no idea why I received this power or even what I'm supposed to do-_

"Yes, I am fine."

* * *

Yukari uses another garudyne and it blows Aigis off her feet. Metis is cooling down, but she can't take another hit. Mitsuru is continually powering up and unleashing her strongest moves on the robot sisters. The onslaught of attacks has left Aigis weak and Metis unable to keep up.

The blonde robot stands up, feels the anger push against her sensory data, and she stops holding back.

"Metatron!"

The angelic being rises from her mind, and the pair of girls have the kindness of looking terrified. Aigis doesn't spare another second.

But then the recording stops here.

* * *

_"You are very close." The man sits in his chair. "Soon, you will reach the end and reach all the answers you want."_

_ Aigis lets herself relax in his presence because he hasn't harmed her. After feeling the cold drift of death so many times, she feels comfortable around him._

_ "The Apostles will finally see what has become of the messiah."_

_ "What-"_

_ And she's suddenly thrown out of that existence, has this strange feeling like a lock clamping down on that world-_

_ "Good bye, Aigis of the seventh generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon. This is not an end, but only the beginning."_

* * *

The sight of seeing the dorm rooms open has never seemed so…cathartic.

But it is. After…after seeing him one last time, Aigis can finally live life. And she only wonders why she feels like she's lived lifetimes.


End file.
